at least in some areas. How an oversupply of PhDs could threaten American science - The Hechinger Report
There is this guy on another forum with a master's in chemistry who has been warning people for years not to get degrees in chemistry. He says most end up as permatemps or in postdoc hell. He would love this article. I don't know if I can find it again, but I once came across an article from a person who argued that the "S" should be removed from STEM because the demand for natural science degrees is not that high.
This article suggests that many "S"'s in STEM end up working "TEM" jobs because those skills are very useful outside of classic "S" jobs (that sounds really weird when I read it back, lol). As it turns out, many of the skills taught in STEM courses are not only transferable to other fields, they are highly coveted. In today’s economy, computer and engineering skills, the ability to work with big data tools, and critical thinking skills gained from studying math, hard sciences, and engineering are in high demand throughout all sectors of the economy Debunking the myth of a STEM surplus | The Innovation Files
I am skeptical that an oversupply of PHDs could threaten American science. It is like having too much money will make you poor. Seriously, PhDs need to be flexible. There is more to making a living than academia.
I know that physics majors can easily transfer over to TEM jobs because physics is math-based, and computer science has a lot of math and physics. The article you posted says that biology and social science majors are more likely to go into healthcare than STEM. If you're going to count the social sciences as STEM like the Census Bureau and National Science Foundation does, then yes, economics majors do often work in business. But, this article argues for the removal of the social sciences from the STEM category. What many people don't know is that psychology is a sought after degree in certain tech fields, mostly user experience and user interface design. Psychology and sociology majors with strong skills in statistics are often sought after for marketing research jobs. Many psychology majors have also found a place in human resources. Physical or biological anthropologists often work in forensic science. Physical or biological anthropology is mostly biology. Even if they remove the social sciences, STEM will still be stuck with biology majors where most don't end up in STEM jobs, and their wages are lower than some social science and humanities majors. When searching for the article I saw, I came across three. Why the S in STEM Is Overrated - The Atlantic There "The 'S' in STEM is Oversold" | Science Careers
Nor is the article applicable to me either RAM … as I certainly don’t have a PhD of any kind. :biggrin:
